Power Plays

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program was designed to save homeowners from disaster — instead it became a $20 billion debt-ridden mechanism that subsidizes the wrong development in the wrong places while blocking the right kind everywhere else. The flood maps that determine what you can build, where you can insure it, and whether your mortgage gets approved are often decades out of date, methodo...

The United States has spent decades drafting plans to modernize its electrical grid, yet transmission lines that engineers say could be built in three years routinely die in decade-long regulatory purgatory — not because of corrupt politicians or corporate sabotage, but because of a 1970 environmental law that nobody in power will touch. This week, we trace how the National Environmental Policy Ac...

Buried inside a 1974 federal law is a discount rate calculation that most elected officials have never read — and it's quietly determining whether millions of public workers will retire with what they were promised. This episode traces how actuarial assumptions became a mechanism of deferred political reckoning, who had the authority to fix the math and chose not to, and what happens when a govern...

When courts lose patience with governments that won't govern themselves, they stop asking nicely — they just take over. We trace the decades-long story of federal consent decrees, using Chicago as the case study for what happens when a city's police department becomes, legally speaking, a ward of the judiciary. It's not tyranny, it's not reform — it's something far stranger, and it's reshaping who...

The Office of Technology Assessment was killed by Congress in 1995, but its absence haunts every tech policy disaster from social media regulation to AI governance. We explore how the deliberate destruction of government's technical expertise created a knowledge vacuum that Silicon Valley was happy to fill. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about...

What happens when a federal regulator tries to quit but legally can't? We explore the bizarre world of 'golden handcuffs' in government service, where ethics rules designed to prevent corruption instead trap officials in jobs they desperately want to leave. From the FDA scientist who became a prisoner of her own expertise to the banking regulator whose resignation letter sat in limbo for eight mon...

Every outgoing president has roughly 75 days to cement their legacy through a blitz of last-minute regulations—and every incoming administration scrambles to dismantle them. We trace the escalating regulatory warfare between administrations and reveal how bureaucratic landmines planted in the final weeks can sabotage policy agendas for years. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://p...

While presidents appoint roughly 4,000 political positions, over 2 million career civil servants actually implement policy—and they've perfected the art of outlasting administrations. We examine how the permanent bureaucracy shapes, delays, and sometimes outright sabotages the agenda of whoever happens to be in charge, and why understanding this shadow governance structure is crucial to understand...

Why the most powerful people in Washington aren't elected officials—they're the mid-level bureaucrats and lobbyists who rotate between agencies and private sector jobs every few years. We follow the paper trail of how a small group of regulatory insiders shapes everything from your prescription drug costs to your mortgage rates, often writing rules for agencies they used to work for and will work...

Every crisis becomes an opportunity for government to expand its reach—and those powers rarely get returned when the emergency ends. From the Patriot Act's surveillance apparatus to pandemic lockdown authorities still on the books, we trace how temporary measures become permanent fixtures of the state. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our...

When telecom executives write telecom regulations and banking lawyers craft banking rules, is it regulatory capture or just how Washington works? We follow the money and the people through the revolving door between industry and government to reveal how former regulators become lobbyists, and former lobbyists become regulators—creating a shadow system where the line between public service and priv...

When presidents lose elections, they don't just pack their bags—they pack the courts. We explore the little-known tradition of lame-duck judicial appointments, from John Adams' original 'midnight judges' to modern confirmation wars, and how a constitutional loophole became a weapon for extending political influence decades beyond a single term. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https:/...

In 2008, a single PowerPoint presentation in a Manhattan conference room convinced the Treasury Secretary to abandon free-market principles and backstop the entire financial system. We trace how one weekend's worth of meetings between a handful of officials rewrote the rules of American capitalism—and why the playbook they created is still being used today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company...

One federal judge in Texas has single-handedly rewritten how the internet works by systematically striking down tech regulations, content moderation rules, and data privacy laws. His courthouse has become the preferred venue for every lawsuit challenging federal oversight of Silicon Valley—and that's no accident. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information...

In 2008, a little-known government agency called the Federal Housing Finance Agency quietly became the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—and never left. Fifteen years later, an automated pricing system controls whether millions of Americans can buy homes, and almost nobody knows how it works. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our co...

In 2013, a single legal memo from Treasury quietly redefined what counted as a 'municipal bond' — instantly making it nearly impossible for Detroit to restructure its debt outside of bankruptcy. How one regulatory interpretation, crafted in response to lobbying from Wall Street creditors, sealed the fate of America's largest municipal bankruptcy and set the template for how distressed cities would...

When a little-known government ethics office quietly blocked dozens of high-profile Washington job switches in 2023, it sent shockwaves through K Street and corporate boardrooms. We examine how one obscure federal agency suddenly found its teeth—and what happened to the people caught in the crossfire. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our c...

In May 2024, Pentagon accountants discovered they had miscalculated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion—meaning they could send billions more without new Congressional approval. What looked like bureaucratic incompetence was actually a masterclass in how savvy officials work within the system to accomplish policy goals when politics fails them. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz com...

How Lina Khan went from writing a law school paper to wielding the Federal Trade Commission like a sledgehammer against Amazon, Google, and Meta. Her aggressive antitrust agenda has CEOs lawyering up and politicians picking sides—but the real power play happened long before she took the chair. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collectio...

In 1978, a single federal judge in Alabama became the de facto administrator of the entire state prison system—and held that power for nearly four decades. How Chief Judge Frank Johnson's contempt citations and court orders created a shadow government that transformed not just corrections, but the very relationship between federal courts and state authority. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz compan...

In 2005, a single bureaucratic decision made 72 hours before Katrina's landfall turned a disaster response into a disaster itself. We trace how one lawyer's memo about federal authority created a coordination nightmare that left thousands stranded—and why the same structural problems persist today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our coll...

When a mid-level FDA regulator quietly rewrote drug approval guidelines three weeks before joining a pharmaceutical company, it exposed how the revolving door between government and industry actually works—not through grand corruption, but through perfectly legal career incentives that reshape policy in real time. We trace how one bureaucrat's job hunt changed what medicines reach your pharmacy sh...

How a routine background check delay for a civilian contractor in 2013 accidentally exposed that the Defense Department had been operating a massive off-books surveillance program without Congressional oversight for nearly a decade. The bureaucratic accident that almost nobody heard about reveals how national security powers really expand in Washington. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. Se...

In 2008, everyone knew the banks were too big to fail. What they didn't know was that a single federal regulator had been quietly documenting exactly how reckless they'd become—and why her warnings were systematically ignored. The story of how bureaucratic turf wars and regulatory capture turned financial oversight into theater. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com...

How a 27-year-old Air Force analyst leaked America's most classified drone program documents, and why the Pentagon's response revealed more about the kill list process than the leaks themselves. We trace the bureaucratic machinery that turned targeted killing into just another Tuesday morning meeting. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our c...